The four attributes model of the middle school teacher

Abstract

This paper investigates 'middle schooling', in particular the attributes of the middle school teacher and what differentiates the middle school teacher from other teachers: primary and secondary school teachers. This notion of a middle school teacher with its own unique set of attributes sheds new light on the centrality of the teacher in this education reform. So much so that it is challenging the default position that the attributes of the teacher are generic and not usually differentiated from other teachers. Teachers in this phase of education are focused on young adolescence in what is broadly defined in the Australian literature as 'the middle years of schooling'. During the 1990s and into the present there are persistent and unyielding calls for schools to re-structure, re-culture and reform learning and teaching practices that focus on improving student learning outcomes. This paper presents the key findings of a recent doctoral study. The purpose of this study was concerned with creating the conditions that support a different type of teacher who is responsive to the developmental needs of young adolescents and to develop a model based on the understanding of these conditions. A profession is not created by certificates and censures but by the existence of a substantive body of professional knowledge, as well as a mechanism for improving it and a genuine desire of the profession's members to improve their practice. (Stigler & Hierbert 1999:146